Kevin Spacey: berated an audience member after their phone started ringing. Photo: AP

The American Beauty and L.A Confidential star is playing a civil rights lawyer in a one-man show at London’s Old Vic and was in the middle of a dramatic courtroom speech when the mobile went off. And then continued to go off.

The ringing apparently got louder and louder until Spacey, remaining in the character of Clarence Darrow, finally snapped: ‘If you don’t answer that, I will’’.

He received a warm round of applause from the audience, and later people took to Twitter to praise his handling of the whole affair.

"Good to know if you’re an idiot & let your phone ring during a show, the magnificent Kevin Spacey will call you out on it," one supporter posted on Twitter.

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''Mobile phone went off in Old Vic's Clarence Darrow tonight. Without breaking character Kevin Spacey said: ''Either you answer that or I will''.(sic)''," another wrote.

Spacey is playing the show to celebrate a decade as artistic director of the Old Vic, a role which he will step down from next year, and his performance has received positive reviews.

But it seems he's developing quite a reputation for confronting misbehaving audience members.

When Spacey was performing in Richard III at Sydney's Lyric Theatre in 2009, he stayed in character as he yelled "tell them we're busy" at the owner of a ringing mobile phone. He also reportedly pulled a green laser light from his tunic and shone it at some talkative theatre-goers the following night.

Spacey is definitely not the only actor to have taken matters into his own hands after being troubled mid-way through a performance.

Helen Mirren, dressed in full regalia of Queen Elizabeth II, stormed out of a London theatre to give a street drumming troupe a piece of her royal mind.

Our very own Hugh Jackman stopped his Broadway show in New York to to ask an audience member whose mobile started ringing: ‘‘You want to get that?’’.

"Grab your phone, it doesn't matter," Jackman continued. "Come on, just turn it off ... we can wait. Just get the phone.....Don’t be embarrassed. Just grab it.’’

Singer and actress Patti LuPone might take the cake when it comes to actors annoyed by their audiences. During her performance of the musical Gypsy in 2009, a furious LuPone stopped mid-way through a song to demand that a man who was using flash photography be removed from the theatre.

The audience applauded her, and after the man was duly removed, she restarted her number.